Jivin

hey... due to some... unfortunate misunderstandings and a lack of commication and education in the internet on my mums part, i may be forced into buying this. the story is long and albeit sad and unfortunate, is irrelevant to my question Even though this may put a dent in my money a bit, I was up until this point going to share my money between the guitar im workin on at the moment and the Jackson DXMG Im saving for. However since i may get stuck with this fella... would it be worth my while doing this one up instead of the DXMG? I mean i could get a proper Floyd Rose and EMG 81/single/single set for it, and it could turn out beign very cost-effective. However from the look of it it may need more owrk than that... however im not sure. But then again... i would prefer a 2 humbucker setup, which is why i was looking at the DXMG... and i wasnt looking for an incredibly versatile sound.. Maybe i could treat it like the versatile guitar it could be, and put some nice gold hardware on it and give it a veneer top and stuff lol suggestions? ps - sorry if this seems pointless, but im so confused. godamnit! god i hope someone else bids on that thing tomorrrow. - Dan

thanks wes - I guess i sorta started with a randy rhoads style V in my head and worked from there Thanks for the advice on such short notice too, so basically, i should definitely maintain the exact same nut-to-bridge length as the old guitar, and the rest is up to me, provided it fits? Thanks - Dan ps: rats! it just had to look like something didnt it not that i wasnt expecting it, cause its really just another variation on a classic theme.

Hi, Im in the process of creating a new body for a beat up 2nd hand guitar, and I’m curious about the technicalities of a few things. Basically im creating a new shape, but I plan to recreate an identical (duh) neck pocket and cavities. My main question is, how much freedom do I have in moving things from their locations on the old body, more specifically, the bridge? AFAIK moving the pickups is just a matter of personal preference in sound (correct me if im wrong there plz), but if I shift the bridge I would be changing the bridge to nut length of the guitar… Now my common sense is telling me that wouldn’t be too much of an issue provided I don’t move it far, but I’m really not sure on this so that’s why im here asking The reason im asking is because the shape I’ve come up with is significantly different from what the old shape was, and im not sure if im going to need to move the bridge at all, cause it may be too close to the back of the new body (i shoudl be right if i make hte curve at the back a bit more shallow). Come to think of it, ill post what ive done in the way of a shape. Ive tweaked this a fair bit since I did the CAD drawing, because when I drew it onto my sheet of wood I changed some things I thought needed to be changed (e.g. I made the inner part of the shape a bit wider). Still, im a huge beginner at this, and although my shape isn’t exactly groundbreaking, I did draw It from scratch so if I could get some pointers im all ears Im happy to run with what ive got and just see how it goes, but i sort of based my initial size off the old warlock body (including my general model for upper fret access), which im sure is smaller than the general 'average' size, so im a little worried its going to be a bit small and this size isnt really goign to be right with this style body. Here it is: and here is the guitar before i took it all aparnt (the pink body had a few big cracks in it in the neck joint): Thanks a lot - Dan

Update/pics? its been a month since you were 'nearly starting building again' ... share the wealth - Dan

My advice would be to make sure you learn all 5 positions of the pentatonic scale inside out, and then move on to something a bit more complex like the natural minor scales. Its a common beleif the harmonic scale is good for metal improvisation. Also, im sure you know 'the blues scale' ?

Cotton should be stretchy enough as far as i know, but Brian would be the one to tell you

man that guy seems very serious that must surely be the rolls royce of basses though amazing stuff.

Hmm - decisions, decisions! Thanks a lot for your helpt though tdog, im sure it will come in handy - good man - Dan

Hi, I plan to do a material finish on a guitar soon, and im deciding on whether or not i should put binding on the edges or just do a poor mans burst. So, how hard is binding? Is it easy enough that a beginner could give it a go and end up with a nice result? Also, is there any issues with binding on a guitar with a material finish on the top i should be aware of? Thanks - Dan

Go Darko I pay ~$5US for a .010 - .046 set and provided i take care of them, as in, wipe them down after a session and put my guitar back in its case, i get mucho time out of them. good value i reckon I guess if i was gigging more often I may start using something that made me feel a bit more secure, cause breaking a string during a performance is right up there with falling off the stage as far as im concerned

No - he is just teasing the bastard

Thanks for hte advice all, and thanks for clearing away the wrong information i'd been given - im really glad i asked in here I've got plenty of time to decide on pickups while i save the 500 odd dollars for them anyway, so there is no rush

Hey Dave, Thanks a lot for your advice mate, however right now im not really that interested in _building_ a guitar with a floyd rose tremelo, its more im actually looking into buying a guitar with one in the future. For the moment my 2 first projects that I have lined up (the first of which i am in the depths of at the moment), are for guitars without tremelo's - but i guess after that the sky is the limit... so who knows I have no objection to having 20 guitars in my house if need be, so once im more skilled hten ill look at creating my own super strat with a floyd rose Still, if you woudlnt mind, im interested in what happens when you break a string with a floating floyd rose compared to a fixed one. With the floating does it throw the whole guitar out of tune? Its things like that im interested in, since although ive played guitars with them before, ive never owned one so ive never had the burden of maintaining one. Thanks - Dan

Thanks a lot for your advice wes, thats cleared it up nicely Actually its funny you should advice that, because atm the combo i had in mind was mahogany/EMG-81's anyway, or maybe 81/60? Still, the problem is im not sure what wood i will be able to get, sicne it will be through a mate of dads who does a lot of cabinet making, it could be i end up with a wood thats not traditionally used in guitars. So we'll see.

Ahhhh, So if I want to be use the tremelo to raise the string tension as well, I would need a floating one? Lovely Would I be right in saying the floating ones would be more complicated though? as far as breaking/replacing strings and replacing a set of strings ect ect? Thanks for your help! - Dan ps: I actually did know about Floyd Rose already, but that was my fault for not fielding the question properly - thanks anyway

Hi, I'm in the process of choosing a species of wood for my explorer, and i'm just a touch confused about the tonal qualities of active pickups (eg, the SD LiveWire's or EMG Actives) in different materials. I've been led to beleive that the wood they are in has far less (if any) effect on the sound than it would on passive pickups. Is this correct? Because that is the way I had understood them (to a certain extent), and its becoming important that i understand because weight aside, I would like to pick a nice peice of wood with the look I want, however I dont want to sacrafice a nice sound to get it. So yeah, at the moment im planning on the fact the active electronics won't be so drastically affected by the material they are in, however i'm here to learn, so fire away Another question - How does the wiring differ for active pickups compared to passive ones? Would it be an issue to replace an EMG-HZ (in a HZ/HZ config) with an Active EMG-81 in the bridge, therefore having an active pickup in the bridge position and a passive pickup in the neck position? Thanks in advance, - Dan

Hi Can someone please fill me in on what a 'Floating' FR Tremelo is, and what difference there is between that, and a fixed one? (if such a thing even exists? hah) Thanks a lot - Dan

haha with a sig like his he can get away with it

"2 Black Humbuckers" wow - pickups to die for Fairly inexpensive for an fairly big name artists signature guitar. Although the specs dont exactly lend to it being an awesome guitar at a glance? meh, what would i know

Currently: - Hohner Baton Rouge (its hard to explain what this thing is... but its heavy, sounds nice and i guess its sortof les paul-ish) - Magnum Amplified Acoustic - Cort Earth-100 Acoustic - Zoom 606 - Kustom Quad 100 DFX - Kustom KGA 10 Realistic Wish List: - Jackson DXMG - Fender Strat (finished with tobacco burst and gold hardware ) - Wooden Explorer (cant buy the one i want... so im wishing myself to build it) - Boss ME-50 - Boss MT-2

Thats sounds awesome

Mr Vegemite (Les Paul shape finished with the australian flag ) Wooden Explorer (planning an explorer with a nice wooden finish) then again - im new and therefore i suck, so im not going to hold my breath

Thanks for your input GuitarMaestro, however, keeping in mind this ply i have is costing me NOTHING, and ive NEVER attempted to cut out a guitar body before, and the guitar i am getting the hardware/electronics from is already made out of ply and i thought it sounded good for what i want to use it for, wouldnt you then say its not such a bad idea? However you should also keep in mind its significantly harder to get a hold of wood here in Australia compared to in the US (eg: you cant just jump on eBay and get a nice peice for a good price - you have to slug it on foot and there is defnintey no-one local to me that is affordable). After i have tried this to gauge difficulty and what tools i need ect ect I will take the hard road and find a nice peice of wood and i plan on making myself an explorer... so yeah, i dont think at all ply is acceptable for a quality guitar

I have no idea what type of ply this is... i can try and find out. But i get this stuff for free... so i dont imagine anything else out there could be cheaper

Hi Guys, I'm fairly new to the whole notion of building a guitar from scratch, and im ttrying to work my way up in a fairly cost effective manner I bought a 2nd hand Onyx warlock copy thing that I planned on refinishing and generally just refurbishing, however after starting to take off the paint ive reallised its made of ~40mm thick ply (i was wondering why it was so light) I also found 2 fairly small cracks around the neck joint on the body that have come all the way through the finish. Since then ive actually managed through a mate of my dads to get myself a few peices of ply about 1m square and ~50mm thick that are offcuts from peices used to floor trains. So my idea was to use the peices of ply to basically stuff around and try and create my own shape body, but with the same neck joint and cavities as the old one, so that way i can still refinish it and put all the old hardware in the new body, but I dont have to worry about it being weak and ready to snap (like the old one, since it had those 2 cracks in it). I would basically use this as a guinea pig for a material finish and as genral practice for cutting a body. Does that sound ok? Is ply really THAT crap, in that it would be a complete waste of time? Cause before i took it apart, the bridge pickup in this thing was hot as far as i was concerned. It was nowhere near as mellow as my other guitar made of mahogany, but it had this awesome raw crunch to it which i loved for my metal stuff. And with this ply, if it works i would like to keep it as half memento, half playable guitar, and if it doesnt... i havent wasted any money? - Dan